Research note
The user asked whether Shop Pay, Airwallex or any crypto merchant beats PayPal QR (1.2%, no fixed fee), or would look good in Osias's presentation. Checked on the day; prices as the provider quotes them.
Verdict
None of the three beats PayPal QR for a café or salon; one thing does. Shop Pay is a wallet inside Shopify's checkout at Shopify's card rate (1.75% + 30c) — a fit for shops selling online, not for a table. Airwallex is a Stripe-like gateway at 1.65% + 30c online, with in-person "coming soon" — fine, unremarkable. Crypto processors charge about 1% and settle in AUD, which beats every card rate, and almost none of a café's customers can pay that way; keep it as a quiet "on request" line, no more.
The real challenger is pay-by-bank on PayID/PayTo — the customer's bank app, no card network, no percentage. QwikPay charges $0 a transaction (free for a year, then from $19.99 a month) and eftpos's eQR is coming with the banks behind it. That is the line worth adding under PayPal QR on page 2: "and pay-by-bank on PayID, no fee at all" — with the honest caveat that customers are only just learning to scan for it. Both are worth a spot on the sheet; nothing else is.
| Option | Rate (AU) | What it really is | For us |
|---|---|---|---|
| PayPal QR (on the sheet) | 1.20%, no fixed fee (schedule updated 23 Jul 2026) | The customer pays in the PayPal app; millions of Australians already have it. Free business account, one QR. | DEFAULT for ordering at the table. |
| Pay-by-bank: PayID / PayTo QR (QwikPay, Azupay, eftpos eQR) | QwikPay $0 a transaction; free 12 months if signed before 30 Aug 2026, then from $19.99/month. Azupay: a low flat fee per transaction, not a percentage (unpublished). eQR: rolling out with the banks. | Account-to-account on the NPP: the customer's own bank app, real-time settlement, no card network and no interchange. Card surcharges are banned from 1 Oct 2026, which is why the banks and fintechs are pushing this now. | ADD as the no-fee line under PayPal. Newer to customers than PayPal; put it second. |
| Shop Pay (Shopify) | Shopify Payments AU: 1.75% + 30c domestic cards; Amex 2.9% + 30c. Shop Pay itself adds nothing and saves nothing. | An accelerated checkout wallet for Shopify stores (and, in AU, some third-party carts). Needs a Shopify store behind it. Shop Pay Instalments is not in Australia yet. | NO — a shop thing, not a table thing, and dearer than Stripe. |
| Airwallex | 1.65% + 30c domestic online; 3.40% + 30c international, no FX markup like-for-like. Checkout has no setup or monthly fee; the account is $29/month unless you deposit $5k/month or hold $10k. In-person "coming soon". | A global business account and gateway. Strong on multi-currency; ordinary on domestic cards. | MAYBE for a client selling overseas. Not for a café. Slightly under Stripe on rate, not enough to move. |
| Crypto / stablecoins (Coinbase Commerce, BitPay, NOWPayments) | About 1% (NOWPayments 0.5%, 1% with auto-conversion); BitPay and Coinbase Commerce settle to AUD. | The customer pays from a crypto wallet; the processor converts and pays out in dollars, so the venue never holds crypto. Tax and reporting stay simple when it settles in AUD. | ON REQUEST — one quiet line, no more. Beats the card rate; almost nobody at a café can pay with it. |
Before we print any of it: confirm with PayPal that a payment started from the QR's link inside our app is billed at the QR rate (decision 10b), and pick the pay-by-bank provider — QwikPay's $0 rests on a subscription after year one, and Azupay's flat fee needs a quote.
Internal. Companion to Phone agents, and the channels that fit and the merchant decisions in SYNC (10, 10b, 11).